AUGUSTA – The chief organizer of a drive to repeal Maine’s new school system consolidation initiative says petition circulators will be out in force at state polling places next week.

Skip Greenlaw of the Maine Coalition to Save Schools, calling the consolidation plan “a threat to our Maine culture,” told reporters Tuesday that Gov. John Baldacci, who championed the consolidation plan, and Maine lawmakers who enacted it as part of the state budget are wrong when they claim it will save money.

“The fact is that this law will shift the local cost of education from one community to another community within the proposed regional school unit,” Greenlaw said in a prepared statement at a State House news conference.

Greenlaw said the coalition is not against the idea of consolidation, but opposes forced consolidation.

To advance their citizen initiative, backers of the repeal effort need to collect at least 55,087 valid signatures – 10 percent of the total number of votes cast for governor at the last gubernatorial election. The filing deadline for 2008 would be Jan. 28, according to the Secretary of State’s Office.

The goal of the consolidation plan is to create a maximum of 80 school units of at least 2,500 students in most instances. By the Baldacci administration’s count, Maine currently has 290 school districts and 152 superintendents, some of whom serve multiple districts.

State savings in the first year have been estimated at $36.5 million.

Earlier this month, after dozens of legislative proposals touching on schools were filed, the governor attempted anew to draw a line.

“I will not support any legislation that undermines the education reforms passed last session by an overwhelming, bipartisan majority,” Baldacci said in a statement. “We must continue to move forward with the elimination of duplicate administration and overhead in K-12 education, and I will strongly oppose any effort to weaken the law’s language or to undermine its intent.”

Last week, legislative leaders sidelined numerous requests – many of which had identical or similar titles – that would make changes in the school administrative consolidation process.

The leaders gave assurances that all proposed changes will be considered by the Education Committee, but taking up each bill individually would take up too much time, they said.

A Maine Coalition to Save Schools brochure warns that small communities could suffer from the consolidation initiative.

“As political pressure mounts to limit school budget increases,” the brochure says, “regional school boards will vote to close small schools.”

Greenlaw said the coalition, “a Maine home-grown, grass-roots effort,” had raised about $6,640 and spent about $6,200. A contribution of $3,000 came from the town of East Machias, he said.

“We are not willing to make changes to our institutions for some new structure which has no promise of excellence,” Greenlaw said.